Description

This book describes how two newly invented communications technologies - the telephone and the electric light - were publicly envisioned, in specialized engineering trade journals as well as in more popular media, at the end of the nineteenth century. Much of the focus is on the telephone, particularly how it disrupted established social relations (people did not know how to to respond to its use or impact) and how society tried to bring it under a carefully prescribed pattern of proper usage. While the emphasis is on the way professionals in the electronics field tried to control the new media, their broader social impact is also discussed.show more

Review quote

'A wide-ranging, informative, and entertaining account of the early years of electric and electronic development, this book rethinks the traditional artifactual and institutional approaches to media history.' Electrical Review 'full of aptly chosen anecdotes and quotations from contemporary newspapers and magazines, some of which are very amusing' Antony Anderson, New Scientist 'This is an important book, not only for media historians but also for electrical engineers who are interested in learning about how the public reacted to the introduction of electrical inventions and how these affected social habits and customs.' R.W. Burns, Life Review 'splendid history of the late nineteenth century's version of the information technology revolution ... Marvin has told a fascinating story and drawn on a wealth of contemporary material.' Roger Silverstone, Times Higher Education Supplement 'This most informative book helps the modern reader to comprehend the speed at which electricity-dependent technologies have altered human perceptions of humankind and the world.' Choice 'engaging book ... Professor Marvin's research is firmly based on the technical literature of the time, and fluently expressed ... many intriguing questions are implicit in her presentation.' American Studies International 'not only is the book a good read, but also it is a valuable source book for writers, historians and researchers pursuing the history of, or writing on, the subject of mass communications ... The anecdotes are often highly amusing, but mostly are entertaining or informative ... an important book' Electronics and Communications Engineeringshow more

About Carolyn Marvin

Carolyn Marvin is Associate Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.show more

Review Text

Marvin (U. of Penn., Annenberg School of Communications) turns a scholar's eye to the social and cultural history of late 19th-century technologies - specifically, the electric light, the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and phonograph. Gleaning from popular and professional sources of the day, she assembles a lively picture of emerging elites and benighted publics in America and elsewhere. Electrical engineers were keen for recognition as an expert elite, distancing themselves from craftsmen by founding professional societies and journals and coining suitably arcane jargon. The public at large, divided between enlightened laymen (urban, educated, white and male) and the rest (hicks, non-white, and women) perpetuated cultural cliches and Victorian mores. We learn, for example, of Persian nomads who turned telegraph wire into bracelets, and of women's natural addiction to the telephone given their inherent loquaciousness. The inventions themselves raised societal concerns. The potential for political control, for deliberate deception or abuse through communications channels, was early recognized. So was the potential for physical harm, in the form of electric shocks, weapons of war, or capital punishment. But physical benefit might also accrue - especially electrical "power" to boost virility. The electric light became a source of public spectacle and personal adornment long before it invaded homes. Some saw the new communications media as a threat to social boundaries; others envisioned a new one-world democracy. In many ways, Marvin's multiple visions of technologies born just a century ago are a sharp reminder that "la plus ca change. . ." One has only to think of society's alarms and excursions on the theme of nuclear energy or recombinant DNA to see the relevance and timeliness of the author's engaging sociotechnological insights. (Kirkus Reviews)show more